EA Expects New Consoles Aren't Backwards Compatible

[BrotherRool]

I can believe this, BC sounds expensive and to be honest, everyone profited from HD rereleases.

Still if the PS4 has backwards compat. I'll buy it 100% (Although maybe still a year after release). If it doesn't, but has free online I'll still buy it. If it doesn't have either, then I'll take a hard look at the 720.

Although we all know that MS aren't going to have free online, and backwards compat. isn't so useful when I don't have any 360 games to start with, so in truth, Sony are probably safe

 

[marurder]

So... PC's are dying... again? Nobody talks about PC generations because there aren't any really. There aren't any instant phases or deaths that occur. I think you could say OS generations. But that's the OS, not the PC.

Just justification for squeezing more money out of consumers. I'll be happy with my PC port/emu thanks.

 

[MiskWisk]

I suppose there would be one good benefit if the rumours about next gens consoles are true. I will finally get off my ass and get a decent PC to play games on.

Also, have EA fired their old staff and hired ones who actually understand their target audience. At least in the PR division anyway?

 

[Frostbyte666]

Considering I'm still buying and playing ps1 and ps2 games on my ps3 I doubt I'm going to be buying a ps4 if it doesn't have backwards compatibility with physical discs (I am so glad I got the 1st release ps3 seeing how they removed BC from the later models).

 

[FalloutJack]

Okay, where is it? I'm more a console gamer, but I still have a computer, so...

Still, uhhh...my PS3 is backwards-compatible and where do these overheats come from? It's like the Yellow Light problem and I don't even know anyone who had that. HERE'S THE PROBLEM: Nobody cares what companies want. Customers want what customers want, and backwards-commpatibility is something you have to face because of the ever-growing list of games picked up over the years that won't go away. One reason the Vita isn't selling is because there is NOTHING ON IT and because it won't have much access to the PSP games people have been playing. The company may not like it, but the customer has spoken.

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

Speaking as someone who has always played on PC, never owned a console and REALLY looking forward to buying my first ever console from Microsoft/Sony (next gen obviously)...if they aren't backwards compatible with at least PS3/360 and PS2/Xbox games (tall order, I know) then I'm simply never buying a fucking console. Ever.

As a PC gamer I've never had to suffer from backwards compatibility bullshit, there's ALWAYS a way to make even the most ancient titles run on the newest computers/operating systems. Plus you can easily emulate PS1/PS2 games, that shit is unbeatable.
However since consoles don't offer anywhere near that much flexibility, I can't simply hack/tweak my way to make an older game work on it...the console company has full control. So they better cut the bullshit and make sure older games can run on their oh-so-amazing-new hardware.

It's the equivalent of a a bicycle that is perfectly functional despite being 30 years old, but today nobody can ride for some utterly contrived reason, and whenever they ask they are told "sorry, it's too old, you simply can't ride it!". Makes no fucking sense right? Yeah, so does the lack of backwards compatibility on newer hardware.

For PC nerds, imagine if USB3 was incompatible with USB2 ports. It would've caused an absolute shitstorm, I guarantee it. Almost nobody would adopt it for general use, it would've been even less used than Firewire and Thunderbolt.

 

[spartandude]

well if new consoles arnt dont have BC then im not going to rush to buy them, i will at some point well into their cycle after a few price drops but definately not at the begining oh god no

 

[surg3n]

In my experience, backwards compatibility is a myth:

PS3, no chance - I was too late getting a PS3 so got the rape version with no BC.
360, HA! - Ok if you only want to play a handful of classic games, don't for one instant think that any old XBox game will work.

I don't rely on it and never will - console manufacturer's don't want us to play old disks, they want us to go ''ohh, I remember that game, in fact I still have it, given that I supported these consoles in the early days and have a handsome collection of disks. I want to play it again, so I'll go an buy it all over again, because they deserve to be paid twice for some reason known only to them... it's great because any royalty agreements will be void or expired, so all that money goes to the copyright holder, not the talent that created the games we love.''

I rely on emulation and the App store for my nostalgia fix - if you have a handsome collection of games for a system, keep the system! - if it dies, replace it!. I think it's better to accept your fate as a gamer, make space for old consoles, buy a shelf unit and have them all sitting on that - tell the girlfriend/wife/partner to get over it and accept the jungle of cables in that corner - or take over the basement. It's the only way to keep your stuff these days - that or pay for it all over again, again, again, again.

It would be nice if the manufacturer's recognized hardcore gamers and collectors - and made a collectors edition of consoles, massive hard drives, backwards compatibility, maybe even some extra features like built in Action Replay, emulation, BC options like smoothing the screen or adding scanlines for authenticity. Now, that would make me sit up and take notice of these next gen consoles. Currently, I couldn't give a single solitary f... about them - I've taken to PC gaming because of the retardation of the console market... by that I mean Kinect of course.

 

[Stavros Dimou]

When I was mostly a console gamer and my consoles didn't had backwards compatibility I used to sometimes store one of my newer consoles on a shelf and put out the older from a shelf and place it under the TV.
Later on when I started getting really bored of doing this,I started having 2 consoles both at the same time under the TV and I would only change their video cords whenever I needed it. Backwards compatibility wasn't really a stopper for me in getting new consoles.
But since I became a PC gamer I realized that things can be much more convenient. Because PCs have unlimited backwards compatibility. I can still play my old copy of Duke Nukem 3D from 1996 (17years ago) on my Windows 7 PC and have it installed on the drive. It's even better when the fans community of a game make on their own their own updates for games, so I can for example play Duke 3D at 1080p with high resolution texture pack.
It just makes things more convenient.

 

[Strazdas]

We of the Glorious PC Master Race welcome you, Console Peasants into the realm of PC gaming where backward compactability is eternal, or at least as long as Microsoft allows us to use old DirectX engines (directX 11 does not come with Directx 4 and 5 compatibility, curse you microsoft, i was unable to play a total of 1 games because of this, that is, until i installed a XP virtualbox which is free of charge.).

Frankly, i HOPE PS4 wont have backward compactability.
Why? because that means they have to emulate PS3 ram handling, or worse, have a similar system. It is one of the worst hardware design failures this century.

Okay, where is it? I'm more a console gamer, but I still have a computer, so...

Image has spore. this game should never be shown anywhere. your argument is invalid.

 

[The White Hunter]

Oh goody. One last reason for me to hate the heavy online focus of this generation. We'll get to look forward to Sony and Microsoft reselling previous-gen games on PSN and XBL, or maybe we can even look forward to them trying to justify the Uncharted Trilogy or Gears of War Trilogy discs in a couple years.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to play Mario Galaxy on my WiiU and Dawn of War on my laptop. Because I can.

Well Nintendo is inevitably going to bring Gamecube titles to the virtual console, but they'll be cheap, and a lot of good gamecube titles are not cheap things to hunt down these days.

HOnestly no backwards compatibility is gonna suck, it's why I took so long to get a PS3 ¬_¬ I'll also definately not be getting the next Xbox if I can't hunt down every Halo game and play them in one place. Maybe the recent signs towards PC ports are a sign I'll get that anyway.

At any rate, I'ma go play Skyward Sword on my Wii U

Edit: I'm not likely to sell off my PS3 when/if I get a PS4 anyway because shitty trade in prices. So it's not a huge deal to me, I'll just be waiting until I h ave a bigger TV with more plugs in the back and more space for hardware. Unless the new consoles are of similar size to the gamecube, I simply don't have the space right now.

 

[Kinitawowi]

Image has spore. this game should never be shown anywhere. your argument is invalid.

I thought most people were bemoaning the inclusion of Duke Nukem Forever these days, although the image predates the release of the game.

Either way, the image has Uplink and therefore should be shown everywhere. Partly as a great acknowledgement of the indie scene, and partly because the game is awesome.

 

[StubbornGiant]

So get the next gen console only to have to buy next gen console titles. This doesn't sound right and I don't think it ever will for an otherwise profit grab.

 

[surg3n]

In my experience, backwards compatibility is a myth

it may be many things but it's not "a myth".

there's no reason at all consoles can't emulate prior generations. it's not particularly hard to write an emulator especially if you are as technically familiar with the hardware as the actual hardware manufacturers.

But the current generation isn't backwards compatible - having to download a patch to play a game, having to download a special version, having to emulate is not backwards compatibility. I can't take an XBox game and play it on a 360, I can't take a PS2 or PS1 game and play it on a PS3... at least not without the game being adjusted to work on the new hardware. Nothing would be cooler than having real, 100% backwards compatibility, but it doesn't exist, not in the way that Sony and M$ claim.

 

[Strazdas]

Image has spore. this game should never be shown anywhere. your argument is invalid.

I thought most people were bemoaning the inclusion of Duke Nukem Forever these days, although the image predates the release of the game.

Either way, the image has Uplink and therefore should be shown everywhere. Partly as a great acknowledgement of the indie scene, and partly because the game is awesome.

I think we should just agree that this image should have been made by somone competent.

 

[Colt47]

They will be backwards compatible or no one will buy them. The ignorance of some of EA's employees on the subject of systems organization isn't exactly surprising, but seriously, [em]Software/Hardware equivalence[/em] is something anyone with access to wikipedia could look up and understand. Also, I've got no clue what in the world they are talking about with multiplayer compatibility across game consoles: Yes, the PS3 has different game code than the Xbox 360, for example, but that doesn't mean that sending signals between the two consoles and a central server is going to require massive amounts of resources to make functional. We are already doing that on PCs with different hardware and to some degree, operating systems! World of Warcraft for Mac and PC comes to mind.

The only reason Sony axed backwards compatibility is because their original solution for it caused the price for the ps3 to be through the roof and they didn't plan ahead on making good software emulation. So, they just killed backwards compatibility completely and kept selling PS2s for a while. Heck, from the way it looks in hindsight, it's like Sony didn't want to bother paying programmers to keep updating the emulation software, which is why they don't have it on the later slim models.

 

[WanderingFool]

So... if the PS4 doesnt have BWC, than Ill still have to buy the PS3 for all those games Im missing out on...

Good thing I was already going to buying it. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.399815-All-Red-PS3-Coming-to-the-U-S-in-God-of-War-Bundle#16412071]